New Yang City

How to transform NYC into a UBI paradise

(Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images)

Hey folks, happy Wednesday. Going to talk about something a bit off the beaten path today.

Andrew Yang has filed paperwork to run for mayor of New York City, and through the weird happenstance of our times, it seems likely that he’s going to emerge as the Great Moderate Hope in a sea of progressive contenders. That includes hiring Bradley Tusk*, one of Michael Bloomberg’s campaign managers, to consult for him.

I think we probably know what a neo-Bloombergian campaign looks like, and it probably doesn’t involve advocacy for a municipal-level universal basic income. And that, in turn, is probably for the best since I think Yang’s presidential campaign had a lot of appealing qualities, but his whole automation schtick is wrong.

I think UBI could be a promising theme for a mayoral campaign, though. Not because of automation, but because of the fiscal situation in New York. The city finds itself faced with a pandemic-induced budget crisis and clearly needs …